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JCP criticizes ﾔmarket testingﾕ bill allowing credit card firms to collect national pension premiums

Japanese Communist Party House of Representatives member Yoshii Hidekatsu criticized a bill that allows credit card firms to collect national pension premiums because it will expose the public to high interest rates and the forcible collection of money due.

In the House of Representative special committee on administrative reform meeting on April 10, Yoshii raised the question of the ﾒmarket testingﾓ bill that would allow public services to be opened to private enterprises.

The bill is in line with the request of the credit card industry calling for new opportunities for profits. By allowing arrears to be paid through credit card loans, credit card companies will be able to make huge profits by charging interest on arrears. The credit card industry states that the collection of arrears should be among the major pillars of their business.

Yoshii said, ﾒIf the National Pension premiums are charged on a credit card loan, action to claim arrears can be transferred to private companies from the central and local governments, enabling credit card companies to make profits with high rates of interest.ﾓ He also pointed out that people in arrears will face forcible collection by private companies.

Another bill has been introduced in the current Diet session to revise the Local Government Act to allow national health insurance premiums and utility bills to be charged on credit cards. The Council for Regulatory Reform is calling for national health insurance premiums, nursing care insurance premiums, and national taxes to be charged on credit cards.

Yoshii said that the bills to opening public services such as collecting national pension premiums, national health insurance premiums, and taxes to the private sector is in line with the credit card industryﾕs quest for new business opportunities in social insurance premiums collection schemes.
- Akahata, April 11, 2006